U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, pictured speaking to Border Patrol agent Art Del Cueto in Arizona on Feb. 22, 2023, led a convoy of congressional Republicans to Yuma, Arizona, for remote hearings on immigration.
Sabrina Eaton | Cleveland.com/The Plain Dealer
YUMA, Ariz. – Newly-minted House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan on Thursday capped two days of touring Yuma, Arizona by conducting a public hearing in the city’s council chambers on how illegal immigration is straining its community services.
Yuma County Sheriff Leon N. Wilmot told a standing-room only crowd that U.S. Border Patrol apprehensions in his county soared from roughly 40 a day to over 1,000 a day after Joe Biden took over as president. Wilmot attributed the boost to changes in immigration policy under Biden, such as stopping a past requirement that immigrants remain in Mexico while they wait to hear whether they’ll be admitted to the United States.
Wilmot said his county supplies 90% of the United States’ leafy greens in the winter, and its farm fields are endangered by “tons of trash, pharmaceuticals, and biological waste” being left by those who illegally cross the Colorado River. He said its emergency management agency has spent $70,000 to lease portable toilets to keep immigrants from defecating in crops, Wilmot said.
Wilmot said the price tag for migrants being illegally smuggled by the cartels begins at $6,000 per person. Cartels use social media to recruit juveniles to smuggle humans and narcotics into the country because the federal government won’t charge them with a crime because of their age, he said.
A surge of undocumented migrants with medical problems is also straining care at Yuma Regional Medical Center, its chief executive told the committee. Robert J. Trenschel said his 406-bed hospital has provided $26 million in uncompensated care over the past year.
He said Yuma, which has 100,000 people, has had 300,000 people cross the border over the past year and his hospital is obligated to provide medical care to those who need it.
“Every dollar in uncompensated care has a direct impact on our hospital,” said Trenschel. “Migrant patients are receiving free care. They have no ability to pay. We have no ability to bill anyone. We don’t know their final destination. We don’t know anything about them. We cannot provide completely free care to the residents of our community so the situation is not fair and is understandably concerning to them.”
Service to migrants is also stressing the Yuma Community Food Bank, CEO Shira Whitehead told the committee during a visit to her facility. Food need is high among its legal residents, many of whom are seasonal agricultural workers, and the food bank lacks resources to feed large numbers of illegal immigrants, she said
“What we’re looking at here is sustaining the legitimate needs people have in this community,” Whitehead told the committee.
More than a dozen Republican members of Jordan’s committee attended the field hearing, but its Democrats were absent. The top committee Democrat, New York’s Jerrod Nadler, described the expedition as a “stunt hearing,” and said his members didn’t get enough notice of the trip to make plans to attend. He said they’d make their own trip to the border next month to “hear from the community and government officials on the ground.”
“It’s a shame that the Democrats did not join us today,” said Jordan, a Champaign County Republican.
“They’ve accused us of political grandstanding, because we’re here trying to hear from real people outside of Washington D.C.,” he continued. “Why don’t Democrats want to hear from local law enforcement? Why don’t Democrats want to talk to hospital administrators? Why can’t Democrats be bothered to hear how fentanyl continues to kill tens of thousands of people in communities?”
He said his committee will work to pass legislation that would reinstate the “remain in Mexico” policy and tighten other immigration enforcement legislation. After the hearing, he took selfies with audience members.
“Everyone from this committee has heard you,” U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman, of Wyoming told witnesses and audience members. “They’re listening and they want to represent you. They want to represent your voices.”
